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Bill Polian was on ESPN to give his expert opinion on the NFL front office and whether it’s plausible that the Ray Rice elevator security footage could have been received by the NFL but not been seen by Roger Goodell or others within the league office.
During a segment for SportsCenter at 10:47, Polian was rather doubtful that no one could have seen the tape because, in his estimation, the NFL’s office is incredibly tightly ran and operated. In other words, if a tape of such importance was sent to the NFL, then it would have been seen by someone of consequence.
It is very puzzling to me. As a matter of fact, I worked as a vice president in the NFL office in 1993, with respect to football operations. I know how the office works, I’ve physically been there—it was a different building, not the one they’re in now—but it’s very difficult for me to understand how that could happen. Especially when you’re in a situation that is as high-profile as that particular incident is. It’s puzzling, and I have as many questions as everyone else. It’s outside my area of expertise. For all the years that I was in the NFL, NFL security, and the NFL’s ability to protect its integrity, the so-called “protection of the shield,” was unmatched in American business. Forget about sports—in American business. I mean, you did not step out of line in the NFL, and if you did, there was an unwritten rule that when you were called into the office—and met with someone who was the commissioner or there at the behest of the commissioner—that you better come clean, that you better tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And if you work in the office, you better be on top of the details. The office was there to make sure that the clubs, the players, the reputation of the NFL reamined unsullied. That goes back to the 1960’s with the administration of Pete Rozelle. So this is totally, totally out of character for what I know of the NFL office.
However, in a segment that aired a mere 20 minutes later, Polian completely changed his tune. Like, it’s not even hedging, it’s a complete one-eighty:
Well it can happen. It’s a very large organization, much larger than when I served in the league office, maybe much larger by a factor of 10. When you have a large, bureaucratic organization, which that is, and there are some that think it is too large, very honestly. Things can slip through the cracks. Someone can make a value judgement who has no right to make that judgement. The CEO, who is in effect Roger Goodell, doesn’t get all the information he needs all the time. That’s a fact of life in bureaucracies. In this case, we’ll find out what happened, and they’ll absolutely, they being the NFL and Roger, will have to take steps to make sure it never happens again.
So, which is it? Is the NFL a tightly-wound incredibly well-run organization where no pertinent information gets lost in the chain of command or is it a regular, run-of-the-mill bureaucracy that is as dysfunctional any other in America? In twenty minutes, did Bill Polian really just completely change his expert opinion?
We’re entering the Twilight Zone of Ray Rice coverage now.
